Monday, 10 June 2013

As dirty as a hippie's armpit

Hippies. Not the cleanest people who ever existed. I had a look at the bike over the weekend and decided it could do with a bit of a scrub. It really had started to look like it was owned by someone with a beard and an aversion to washing.

I got as far as scraping the built up road gunk off the chain - that took several applications of grease remover. After that, I was stuffed. The rest of the bike looks like Glastonbury in winter.

1 comment:

Bruce
said...

One trick is to use "el cheapo" brake cleaner from the discount automotive suppliers.

Pull the chain off completely and soak it in a bath of solvent. Use the $2 spray cans of the stuff and a nylon nail brush to clean the sprocket clusters. For REALLY caked on crud, hit it with the el cheapo carburetor cleaner.

There are some interesting "dry" lubes (moly) available in pressure-packs, or you can use the "foaming" blue motorbike chain lube after reassembly.